largefeature

Friday at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) featured the Canadian Commission Round in which all the competing quartets performed the same new work, this year by composer Zosha Di Castri. The new piece was co-commissioned by the Americas Society (New York), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and BISQC. The “Canadian Commission” is a rite […]

Spotlight Spirit of the West perform Thursday night at Grey Eagle Casino. Info: greyeagleresortandcasino.ca When Spirit of the West frontman John Mann announced that he’d been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in September, there were many who thought that was the end of the popular West Coast Canadian roots rock act. But after three decades, the […]

Among other things, the Ghomeshi affair served to remind us that public figures are often just mouthpieces. Why, in our media-saturated age, does that sound so wrong? In the darkest days of the Second World War, when Britain stood alone against Nazi-dominated Europe, the speeches of Winston Churchill roused and inspired a beleaguered nation. Little […]

Brian McGrattan remembers the day he was baptized by Peter Maher. “I think he gave me a ‘Yeah Baby!’ on my first goal I scored here,” recalled the Calgary Flames winger with a chuckle. “And he doesn’t throw that out too much.” Which might as well be ranked right up there with your first childhood […]

Five things to watch Saturday against the Senators 1. BYRON’S BAD-LUCK BREAKAWAYS — Speedy C Paul Byron has become notorious for sighting breakaways and then missing his opportunities. Others have noticed this trend. “We just don’t want him to get any more breakaways,” Flames captain Mark Giordano said with a laugh. “He doesn’t bury them. […]

It isn’t every day a Calgary choir stages a world première of a new cantata, which means this Sunday might just be a day unlike any other. That’s because Sunday is when Luminous Voices will sing the world première of The Far West, a new cantata composed by Calgary’s Zachary Wadsworth.

To use language that’s become familiar in an age when authorities regularly uncover terrorist threats, a former military intelligence officer’s plan to attack a downtown Calgary tower that houses a Veterans Affairs office had gone far beyond the aspirational stage. When the RCMP arrested the 45-year-old man at his parents’ Springbank-area acreage in January, they found two firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, tactical equipment, bomb-making materials and a stew of deadly chemicals.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi smeared residential landlords when he publicly suggested tenants are victims of widespread gouging, said the head of an industry association. “It tarred an industry,” Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association, said Friday. “That’s pretty much what it is. It’s an opportunity to single out landlords and make them the scapegoats.”

Mayor Naheed Nenshi took aim at gouging landlords and urged them to stop thinking of their rental properties as “a get-rich quick scheme” during a call-in radio show on Thursday. Despite Calgary’s affordable housing crisis and hot rental market, Nenshi, a landlord himself, said he has not increased rent on his tenants in four years and he urged other landlords to follow his lead.

Years before most westerners had heard of the Taliban, they were already on Sally Armstrong’s radar — and she was on theirs. “I was their worst nightmare,” she says with a wry laugh of the extremists who at one point held her captive for 24 hours, later adding her name to a list of high-profile enemies of their cause. Over the past quarter of a century, the Canadian journalist and author has gone where few others have dared to tread, into some of the most dangerous places on the planet where oppression and human rights abuses run rampant. Her experiences and observations on its effects on women and girls have filled bestselling books and won her numerous awards, while her opinion pieces have run in such prominent publications as The New York Times.

A hospitality suite at a national civic politicians’ gathering in Niagara Falls has returned to buzz councillors, two weeks after they banned expensing the public for drinks with each other. Mayor Naheed Nenshi is criticizing the $3,400 the office of councillors spent on the little-used suite, designed for private hosting, at June’s convention of Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

You do it for the fun of it, because you love it, and everything that comes after is gravy. If that’s the case, then right now the boys in Calgary band Port Juvee sitting neck-deep in an Olympic pool-sized tub o’ KFC gravy. With fries. Plenty of cheese curds. Pepper corns.

Many people say the rise of gadgets and social media has created an impolite society. But is that just a misperception on the part of sticklers who, at the risk of being rude, should be told to relax? Sit up straight and read on.

Late last November, Steve Patterson found himself in the middle of a perfect storm of Canadian culture. The host of the popular CBC Radio comedy show The Debaters was in Regina, during Grey Cup week, where he was doing some standup.

Heartland fans, it seems, are forever chasing Amy Fleming. They follow her — or rather, the actress who plays her, Amber Marshall — to the Calgary Stampede, on TV as she hosts the Canadian Country Music Association Awards and even online (Marshall’s official Twitter account now has 35,500 followers).

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.